Forget yesterday, have fun today!

I think for most people, the theme of summer is FUN, FUN, FUN! Going with the flow and chillaxin’. There usually comes a time towards the end of summer that all of sudden feels like, oh crap – summer is over, oh crap – I never changed my body, the kids are back to school and I still want to lose weight. Here is where the head’s start to spin.

When I began my journey of transforming habits, I remember labeling summer as HARD to comply with self-care. Everywhere I looked was opportunity for me to eat sugar or drink alcohol with friends. I just wanted to “go with the flow”.

I started dabbling a little here and there, slowly I moved right back to my old habits over summer & my weight crept back up. By August, the judgment came in. By September, I felt like throwing in the towel of transforming my life only to return to insane workouts and eating nothing but dry salads. Soon, I was completely off of self-care by dieting and over-training my body.

I felt like I was failing “the process”, well, the reason I felt like I was failing it was because I had taken myself completely OFF of almost everything thing my coach suggested I do to feel and look better. I was back to square one, only, I had gained knowledge of how to feel better that I was ignoring, the inner conflict!

If you can relate to any of that – what if, instead of labeling transformation as “following the rules” of drinking water, eating real food, moving your body, letting go of negativity and sleeping at night (the tough rules of transformation), we labeled these as activities that allowed our body to feel good? What if we let get go of obsessing over yesterday and focused on today, what feels good TODAY? What does your body want to eat and how does it want to move today? Will that support what your body wants to look like next month? Next Summer? What would feel really good and energizing to the body right now? Is it alcohol and sugar or fresh food, water and movement? Which would allow you to feel good right now? Next week? We create our own realities.

If we want something different, we have to do something different.

The following summer, I let go of my stories and resistance to change. I remember going to a farmer’s market with a girlfriend after coffee, we had so much fun buying veggies, fresh fruit, grassfed beef, raw cheese and eggs. It made me feel oddly organized, healthy and fit. It was FUN doing something for my health and I wanted MORE of THAT feeling. Next, I realized how much fun it was to be outside walking first thing in the morning. I felt so accomplished by 7am each day. After that, I thought, what if I got up even earlier and started a meditation practice with the sun rise, how would that feel?

And so I began a meditation practice, this felt peaceful and opened my world up to yoga, workouts on the beach, meeting new people, being aware of new adventures, a new career and even travel.

The only thing I did was shift my perception of change being hard, stale and strict to change being fun, new and exciting and THAT summer….I transformed, had fun and lost fat! 🙂 If you’re feeling stuck right now or put a few pounds on over summer, work at getting back to TODAY. What can you do today that will allow you to feel better tomorrow? What else is possible?